Science of salt weekly

Project status:

Active

Start date:

06/2015

The objective of this project is to identify, summarize and appraise studies reporting on (1) the relationship between dietary salt and health outcomes and (2) the implementation of salt reduction initiatives that were identified as part of the Science of Salt Weekly systematic review series, with a view to assist scientists, clinicians and policy makers to stay informed about the effects of salt on health and the best strategies to lower salt intake.

Issue

Nearly every country (181 of 187) in the world consumes in excess of the WHO recommended maximum salt intake of 5g per day. The high profile provided by public health efforts has resulted in a vast number of publications on dietary salt. The rapidly growing volume of research makes it challenging to stay up to date as to what is the best strategy for improving health.

Method

Relevant articles are identified through an established weekly Medline literature search. The automated search strategy was adapted from an approach used to conduct Cochrane Collaboration systematic reviews for the development of WHO dietary salt recommendations. Two summaries of the reviewed articles will be published in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension. The first will focus on the relationship between dietary salt and health outcomes and the second on the implementation of strategies to achieve salt reduction in populations.

Status

A total of four systematic reviews on the relationship between salt and health outcomes and three on the implementation of salt reduction initiatives have been published to date. The fourth systematic review on the implementation of salt reduction initiatives has been accepted for publication.